Ad hits 'nanny' Bloomberg

Readers of Saturday’s New York Times may have done a double-take upon seeing the full page ad taken out by the Center for Consumer Freedom, an organization that’s website describes itself as being “devoted to promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choices.” (It receives the bulk of its money from the food and restaurant industries.)

The ad criticized New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent announcement to limit the sale of large, sugary drinks in an effort to curb obesity and it portrayed him as dressed in what can only be described as grandmother garb.

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“New Yorkers need a mayor, not a nanny,” the ad declared.

Justin Wilson, a senior research analyst at the Center, says the reaction has been virtually unanimous.

“I’d say it’s about 90 percent ‘atta boy,’” said Wilson.

But the negative feedback, he says, has been just as enjoyable. He paraphrased one email that he described as “the most poorly argued thing I’ve ever read in my life.”

His favorite response to the ad, however, came from a reporter, said Wilson, who thought it was actually a spoof, and not something set to appear in the New York Times.

Wilson said that when the news out of Bloomberg’s ban trickled out, the staff at the Center quickly whipped something up (“There was a fair number of images that we discussed but this one seemed to be the most iconic”) and pressed to get it in the Times as soon as possible.

The decision to choose the Times was based not only on the paper’s national reach but also because, well, its an audience that might typically be sympathetic to Bloomberg’s positions. And that’s the point.

“This is the first kind of regulation that’s come out of his office that is so obscene that even the New York Times’ readership thinks its insane,” said Wilson. “Don’t get me wrong: I love the New York Post and the Daily News, but I think their readers are just the ones completely rolling their eyes. And, to a certain extent, I’d rather have the people who would think twice about it and say, you wanna know what? This is a nanny state issue.”

Wilson thinks the ad will ultimately be successful and Bloomberg will back down from his proposal.

“He’s still in the phase of public relations denial and saying, ‘I don’t know why this is so controversial!’ But when the most recent poll from Rasmussen has 24 percent in favor and 67 opposing, that’s pretty bad.”